A number of tools are designed for use in connection with the creation of arts and crafts projects and, more particularly, the art of jewelry making. Among them are piers having rounded heads for looping, bending and shaping wire; wire cutters having sharpened edges for cutting the ends of wire after other sections of wire are looped; and combination tools that are designed to perform the functions of looping, bending, shaping preceded by and/or followed by the task cutting the wire to a desired or customized length. For example, two types of prior art looping pliers are The Beadsmith® 6-in-1 Looping Pliers and The Beadsmith® 4-in-1 Pliers. The 6-in-1 Looping Pliers provides six different looping sizes ranging from 2-9 mm. The 4-in-1 Pliers provide a number of utility features for jewelry making, including round tips for use in wire looping, a groove for dosing jump rings, a flat section for flattening wire and sharpened edges for cutting wire or thin headpins.
Through improvements in these and similar types of arts and crafts tools, individuals with arthritic hand and finger joints have found it somewhat easier to continue to use these tools, often times in a manner consistent with use prior to the onset of their arthritic condition. For example, springs positioned between the handles have enabled the heads of looping and cutting tools to automatically separate without manual effort by a user, thereby reducing the stress placed on arthritic joints in the hands and fingers of users with each stroke or squeeze. Likewise, soft covers applied to the handles of looping and cutting tools that are used in jewelry making and other arts and crafts projects further ease the stresses caused by handling these tools. Nevertheless, due to the large amount of pain that is often present in arthritic joints, there is still an increasing need by many afflicted users to accomplish more with each stroke or squeeze of these types of tools. Yet, many tools are generally incapable of effectively performing the tasks and looping and cutting with a single stroke or squeeze, in the same fluid motion. Likewise, even amongst those users who possess pain-free, non-arthritic joints, there is a need to accomplish manual, craft-based wire looping and cutting tasks more quickly in order to increase productivity and reduce the time needed to create crafts and jewelry that utilize looped wiring.
Moreover, prior art looping and cutting tools are generally incapable of consistently discarding cut sections of wire in a particular direction, away from the user. It would be beneficial to incorporate such a feature into wire cutting tools in a manner consistent with their ordinary use.
Lastly, prior art looping and cutting tools are generally not configured to be able to perform customized cutting of wire at specified points along the length of the wire beyond a predetermined fixed length of approximately ½-¾ inch. Enabling customized looping and cutting increases the utility of such a tool by allowing a user to determine a precise position for cutting and looping of wire.
Based on the foregoing, there is an ongoing need to provide a more versatile arts and crafts tool which addresses the shortcomings of the prior art.